In Chapter Three Conner continues by saying that the rate of change has increased and yet people continue to operate as if this magnitude of change can be managed in the same way as it has in the past. He says that the volume, momentum, and complexity of change is accelerating at an increasing pace. He attributes this to seven fundamental issues:

Faster communication

A growing worldwide population

Increasing interdependence and competition

Limited resources

Diversifying political and religious ideologies

Constant transitions of power

Ecological distress

As a result of these and many changes going on in organizations, Conner says that to deal with all of this change "we have to shift our perceptions towards change and how it is managed." Managers are realizing that they are facing constant change and they are beginning to realize that managing change is a key skill that they need to have in order to flourish in this new environment.In Chapter Four Conner says that managers are often not equipped to deal with the "future shock" or too much change in a short amount of time. He says that during this increased speed of change people don't stop changing, but they become less and less effective on both the job and personal fronts (e.g. - displaying dysfunctional behavior). This results in behaviors such as:

Reduced trust

Defensive behavior

Poor decision making

Increased conflict

Poor communication

Reduced propensity for risk taking

Inappropriate outbursts at the office

Venting job frustration at home

He says that the best way that managers and leaders can increase their success levels even with the increasing levels of change is to increase their level of resiliency and their understanding of human patterns of behavior that occur during change.Do you ever see yourself and/or others in your organization displaying the behaviors above?

“The Accidental Creative” is about anyone who uses their mind to solve problems, create things, or innovate in their day to day work. So many leaders are creatives as they develop strategies, innovate new methodologies/processes, and design new inventions.

This first blog post on this book focuses on the creative blocks or how being creative every single day can be so challenging. Todd Henry, the author, says that many things get in the way of creativity - not taking care of yourself, overworking yourself, not having enough structure, and not having a rhythm.

Creatives always seem to need to focus on the balance between possibility and pragmatism by balancing taking big risks, focusing on what they truly want instead of what is safe in the short term. This can lead to impacts to their creativity.

This leads to the following side effects of not maximizing our creativity:

Unnecessary complexity

Fear

Unclear Objectives

Opacity

All of this leads to dissonance or things just not adding up for a creative mind. All of this saps the creative’s energy leading to unfulfilled goals and desires.

What is sapping your energy right now? Are you stuck in doing work that is more pragmatic than possible? Do you have unclear objectives of what you really want to achieve this year? Are you stuck in fear of failure or fear of success to truly go after what you desire?

Next week’s post will focus on tools you can use to get out your creative rut as a leader.

“Management is about coping with complexity. Leadership, by contrast, is about coping with change.” John Kotter

Companies manage complexity by first planning and budgeting, then organizing and staffing, and then controlling and problem solving.

Companies lead by setting a direction, aligning people, and motivating and inspiring.

Kotter says that leadership is really creating a vision of something that could be mundane, but truly serves the needs of its customers and clients. Aligning people truly empowers them to step into their role and contribute in a way that moves the organization forward. Successfully motivating ensures that employees will have the energy to overcome obstacles. It is motivating through satisfying basic human needs of achievement, belonging, recognition, self-esteem, control over one’s life and an ability to live up to one’s ideals.

Management on the other hand is truly taking complex issues and making them more effective, efficient, and productive.

I agree with Kotter that leadership is more visionary and inspiring to bring people along with the strategic plan they have. It takes the ability to take risks, serve clients in a way in which they are not currently served. It is inspiring and open minded and willing to motivate others by working on those aspects that engage employees to want to work through obstacles and not just require it of them. It takes courage to be a leader. It takes authenticity and it takes inspiration - in your own vision and in encouraging others to work towards that vision as well.

Are you a leader or a manager? If you want to be a leader what is your vision to get there? How can you begin to take the steps to become a leader and how can you inspire others to follow your lead?

Monica Thakrar

Monica Thakrar has over 18 years experience in business focused mainly on strategy, change management, leadership development, training and coaching resulting in successful implementations of large scale transformation programs.